Ralph Votapek

Ralph Votapek's early triumphs "as winner of the prestigious Naumburg Award and Gold Medalist in the first Van Cliburn International Piano Competition" were an auspicious prelude to an even more remarkable career.

 Mr. Votapek has made literally hundreds of appearances with major American orchestras, partnered by such legendary conductors as Raphael Kubelik, William Steinberg, Joseph Krips and Erich Leinsdorf. With concerto appearances abroad ranging through London, Paris, and into the Far East, Mr. Votapek has made a special commitment to Latin America where he has toured every other year for some four decades. He is equally familiar as a solo recitalist throughout four continents. In New York alone he has performed repeatedly at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center.

Mr. Votapek has shown a wide-ranging interest in music of all periods and styles, from Bach to Bartok, from Mozart to Piazzolla, and all major composers in between. Though refusing to specialize in any particular composer, he has sometimes been identified with the music of George Gershwin. At the age of seventeen he performed the Rhapsody in Blue with Paul Whiteman in Milwaukee. Since then he has performed the Rhapsody and the Concerto in F with numerous orchestras, including those of Chicago, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Houston and Dallas, as well as overseas in Taipei, Lisbon, Minsk, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, and Sao Paulo. He recorded Gershwin's Second Rhapsody on London Records with Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops.

His most recent recordings have been on the Ivory Classics label featuring music of Debussy, Granados, Falla, Piazzolla, Poulenc, Ginastera and Szymanowski.

Born in Milwaukee, Mr. Votapek began his musical education at age nine when he enrolled in the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music. Continuing his studies at Northwestern University, he subsequently attended the Manhattan School of Music and the Juilliard School where his principal teachers were Rosina Lhevinne and Robert Goldsand. For many years he has served as Artist-in-Residence at Michigan State University.

Votapek plays Gershwin

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